1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a table utensil, and more particularly to a type of hand held utensil particularly adapted for opening the shells of delicacies such as crab legs.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Crab legs, lobsters and other such shelled delicacies are often served in their shell, which must be opened in order to remove the edible portion. Several types of utensils have been employed in the past for opening these shells.
One such utensil is a knife described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,172,306 to Hopkins. The knife includes a planar blade with an open ended slot extending linearly from a terminal end of the blade along the longitudinal axis of the blade for an inch or two. The slot symmetrically divides the blade into two identical sections. In use, one section of the knife is inserted into the interior of the crab leg, with the other section straddling the exterior of the shell. By lifting upwardly on the knife, the knife is rotated about its terminal end, and acts as a lever to break the shell. However, because a pointed edge is formed at the terminal end of the external fork by the linear slot, lifting of the utensil often causes the pointed edge to pierce the shell of the crab leg and results in an interrupted movement in opening the shell. In addition, damage of the edible portions inside can result since the ends of the sections rotate into the crab meat.
Another type of utensil for removing meat from shells is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,200,961 to Mueller. The Mueller patent discloses a lobster fork having a plurality of generally parallel tines, and an outermost claw tine. The claw tine is shorter than and angled away from the other tines. To break open a shell, an edge of the shell is inserted between the claw tine and the parallel tines, and the utensil is used as a lever in a manner similar to the Mueller knife. However, because the claw tine is shorter than and diverges from the parallel tines, the fork neither properly grips nor provides proper leverage for narrow, elongated crab leg shells. The diverging claw tine also tends to project into the edible portions of the crab leg.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,843,223 to Hasseler describes a knife having a main blade bifurcated at one end by a longitudinally elongated notch to form a small blade. The sides of the notch extend substantially parallel to one another and are sharpened to provide oppositely disposed cutting edges. The inner end of the notch is a sharpened straight edge which extends substantially oblique with respect to the longitudinal axis of the blade. The sharpened edges of the blade around the notch are arranged to engage and slit the skin of an animal. Because of the hardness of crab leg shells, the cutting action of this type of knife is ineffective. The blades also have pointed, sharpened outer edges, which would result in an interrupted cutting movement due to piercing of the shell by the pointed end of the small blade.
U.S. Pat. No. 296,492 to Wheeler and U.S. Pat. No. 40,163 to Fitch describe ripping instruments having a blade with diverging sections for use in ripping garment seams. The diverging blades are not suitable for use in breaking open crab legs due to the relatively small diameter of the crab leg. If used to open a crab leg, the blade section inserted into the crab leg would greatly damage the meat portion inside due to its diverging disposition.
U.S. Pat. Nos. Des. 307,374 and Des. 307,375 to Kip C. Lubcke each pertain to Shellfish Opening Tools in which a stationary member resides a spaced distance above a blade utilized for opening a shellfish, but neither of these design patents teaches an arrangement in which a blade protecting member extends out further from the handle than does the blade, such that a user, or a person seated adjacent the user, is protected from possible injury from the tip of the blade occurring during use of the tool.
It was in an effort to overcome the disadvantages of these earlier devices that the present invention was created.